While everyone may have heard of global warming, few understand or know about environmental feedback loops, which are amplifying and accelerating the process.
In the documentary Earth Emergency, climate scientists explain how warming caused by human activity is setting in motion Earth’s own natural mechanisms, releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and further heating up the planet. This revealing film uses captivating illustrations and graphics, stunning footage, and interviews with leading scientists to examine this crucial piece of the climate puzzle. The film conveys the urgency of stopping these cycles, letting natural systems remove carbon and preserving the delicate balance necessary to maintain Earth’s temperature. Narrated by Richard Gere and featuring the Dalai Lama and Greta Thunberg, Earth Emergency premieres on Wednesday, December 29, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET on PBS stations, PBS.org and the PBS Video app.
“Most people I know or encounter haven’t even heard of feedback loops or tipping points,” says Greta Thunberg. “But they are so crucial to understanding how the world works. We have such lack of respect for nature and for the environment. We just think that things will work out in the end. But we cannot solve the climate emergency without taking these feedback loops into account and without really understanding them. So that is a crucial step.”
Out of dozens of environmental feedback loops, Earth Emergency focuses on four, explaining how warming in forests, permafrost, the atmosphere and the poles work together to accelerate dangerous, amplifying cycles. Despite these feedback loops pushing the climate to a point of no return, they are not generally understood by the public—or many policymakers.
Recently, because of its compelling presentation of feedback loops, Earth Emergency was presented to the Members of the House of Parliament and by HRH Prince Charles as part of his COP26 Glasgow presence at the Terra Carta Action Forum at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow on November 4, 2021. The film is also being watched by astronauts from the International Space Station and was included in a recent film series at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
In Earth Emergency, scientists explain how forests play a vital role in the health of the planet, removing a quarter of all human carbon emissions from the atmosphere and cooling the planet. But as forests become drier and warmer, they suffer increased fire hazards and are more vulnerable to insects and disease. The fraction of carbon they are able to remove from the atmosphere is shrinking as the forests of the world succumb to the effects of climate feedback loops. The resulting tree dieback threatens to tip forests from net carbon absorbers to net carbon emitters, heating rather than cooling the planet.
In addition, scientists explain that permafrost, an icy expanse of frozen ground covering one-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, is thawing. As it does, microscopic animals are waking up and feeding on the previously frozen carbon stored in plant and animal remains, releasing heat-trapping gases as a byproduct. These gases warm the atmosphere, melting more permafrost in a dangerous feedback loop. With permafrost containing twice as much carbon as the atmosphere, its thaw could release 150 billion tons of carbon by the end of the century.
At the poles, the reflectivity of snow and ice is one of Earth’s most important cooling mechanisms. In Earth Emergency, scientists explore the impacts of Arctic snow and ice melt. This reflectivity, known as the albedo effect, has been drastically reduced, setting off a dangerous warming loop and melting even more ice and snow. The volume of Arctic ice has already shrunk 75% in the past 40 years—and predictions are dire for the future. “Our climate model projections suggest that we will lose the Arctic sea ice cover in the summer months altogether by the end of the century,” says Marika Holland, National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The film also explores how global warming is altering Earth’s weather patterns dramatically. A warmer atmosphere absorbs more water vapor, which in turn traps more heat and warms the planet further. Viewers will learn how climate change is disrupting the jet stream, triggering a feedback loop that brings warm air northward, and causes weather patterns to stall in place for longer.
“Where we are now is like driving in a car in a dense fog,” says Mike Coe, Director of the Tropics Program at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “You know there’s a cliff out there somewhere, but you don’t know where. Do you want to be going 60 miles an hour or should you be going about 10 miles an hour?”
“The emission of greenhouse gases is an example of a market failure,” said MIT’s Kerry Emanuel. “One business enterprise passing on the real cost of doing business to people who aren’t party to that business. That is most of the rest of us.”
Yet Emanuel remains optimistic: “I’m encouraged by the fact that other countries have de-carbonized their electricity sector in 10 to 12 years. So I know we can do it—and those countries that did it by the way grew their economies rapidly while doing it. But we have to put the incentives in place.”
Narrated by Richard Gere, Earth Emergency is directed and co-written by Susan Gray. The senior producer and writer is Bonnie Waltch and Barry Hershey is the producer.
Watch the trailer for Earth Emergency.
images via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
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